Baldwin v. Wingfield

85 S.W.2d 689, 191 Ark. 129, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 241
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 17, 1935
Docket4-3897
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 85 S.W.2d 689 (Baldwin v. Wingfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baldwin v. Wingfield, 85 S.W.2d 689, 191 Ark. 129, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 241 (Ark. 1935).

Opinions

Mehaeey, J.

This suit was begun by appellee in the Clark Circuit Court to recover damages for injuries to her eye. She alleges that she boarded the train at Little Bock on February 17, 1934, after purchasing a ticket to Arkadelphia. She went to the window before the train started, to call to her husband, and noticed that the glass in the window was cracked clear across. It was alleged that somewhere near Benton, while she was sitting near a window in the train, the glass in the window by which she was sitting broke and part of the glass struck her in the left eye. She alleged that the appellants knew, or should have known, the unsafe condition of the window. Her eye was permanently injured, and she prayed judgment against appellant in the sum of $3,000.

Appellants filed motion to require appellee to make her complaint more definite and certain, in that she failed to allege in what respect the window was in an unsafe condition. In response to this motion, appellee filed an amendment alleging that the negligence complained of was that the glass in the window was broken, and had been broken for some time; that it was not properly fastened in the frame of the window, and that the train was operated in such a manner that there was a sudden jerk which shattered the glass in the window, and that particles of the glass struck her in the eye.

Appellants filed answer, denying the allegations of the complaint and alleging that, if appellee was injured, her injuries were due to some person, unknown to appellants, throwing a rock through one of the windows of the coach in which appellee was riding, and that, if appellee sustained any injuries, they were the result of an unavoidable accident.

Appellee testified that she lived at Arkadelphia; was 36 years old, washed, ironed and cooked for a living; on February 17, 1934, she sustained the injury; glass fell out of the window and struck something and fell over her; bought a ticket at the Union Station at Little Bock to ride the Missouri Pacific train to Arkadelphia; got on the train, took a seat, and between Little Bock and Benton the glass fell out of the window; it was cracked clear across; she knew this before she left Little Bock; her husband- went down the steps to help bring her luggage, and she had left her umbrella in the station; went to the window to ivave to him to bring her umbrella.' The train gave a sudden lurch, and she thinks that is Avhat shook the glass out of.it; and some of it got in her eye; her eye has been giving her considerable trouble ever since; it never bothered her beforehand, she never used: glasses before; iioav she cannot .go AAdthout them; before the injury she was getting $3 -and $3.50 a Aveek for ironing alone, but has been unable to do anything since the accident.

On cross-examination she testified that she was riding on the right-hand side.of the coach coming- to Arkadelphia and the AvindoAv that Avas broken was on the opposite side of the aisle from her, nqt directly opposite, but was the next AAdndoAv back of her. The glass' was cracked clear across. They say there AAas a rock found after the accident, that landed on Tansie’s coat; she saw the rock after the conductor took it and' stood in the aisle and said: “Here is AA-hat did it.” Most of the top part of the Avindow was broken, the upper part fell,out; it shattered and. got in her eye while she Avas sitting clear across the aisle from' it. There were not many people in the car; Dr. Boss and Dr. King treated her eye;.the rock that they shoAved her Avas about the size of her fist; the train gave a sudden jerk before it fell out she thinks that is what shook it out; the train stopped after the accident, but was not a station stop; it stopped because of all the excitement going on. This aauis all of the. appellee’s testimony.

Tansie Williams testified for. the appellant that she remembered getting on the train at Cypress Junction one night in February when Bettie Sue Wingfield was on the train; she knows her; on that trip between Cypress Junction and Malvern a rock was thrown through-the train; witness and appellee Avere both in the colored car; she was not in the coach when the rock Avas throAvn through, but was in the lavatory; saw the window after it Avas broken, but paid no. attention to it before; the rock was found in her husband’s pocket; his coat was on the back of the seat that appellee Avas sitting in; she was coming out of the lavatory when they found the rock; did not pay any attention to the window if it was broken.

Theoplis Williams testified that he was on the train in the back end of the colored part of the coach, and when the rock came through he heard it crash; it sounded like a gun or something; the rock knocked a little hole in the window; saw the rock after it was all over; saw the window after it came through; paid no attention to the window before, but did not notice anything wrong with it; was working for the railroad at the time; saw the hole and saw the shattered glass.

Tansie Williams, recalled, testified that she saw the broken glass on appellee and helped clean it off.

John Williams testified that he was on the train riding behind appellee; saw the rock after they found it and heard the crash as it came through the window; does not know who found the rock, but it was found either in his overcoat or in his wife’s coat; when the coat was picked up the rock dropped out; the rock did not seem to shatter it much, just knocked a hole through the window; if there was anything wrong with the window before, he did not notice it; did not see any crack in the window; there was no unusual jerk of the train at the time the rock was thrown; everybody seemed to think it was a shot when the rock came through; it just broke a little round hole through the window about the size of the rock and shattered it a little.

M. C. Wilbanks testified that he worked for the railroad company and was gang foreman; ivas on the train when the rock was thrown through the window of the colored coach; he was riding in the smoker right behind the colored car and heard the commotion; the train was just south of Benton at the time; does not remember whether the train slowed down or not; heard a racket in the colored car, went in there, and found a hole through the window; some man found a rock in a seat in some man’s coat; turned the rock over to the conductor; the window had a hole in it about the size of a saucer; it went through the glass somewhere near the middle of the window ; does not remember where the train stopped after that, but they did not try to find who threw the rock; the train was not stopped at all; did not remember any unusual jerk of the train.

A. J.

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Bluebook (online)
85 S.W.2d 689, 191 Ark. 129, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldwin-v-wingfield-ark-1935.